If the Republicans keep their hold on the U.S. House and Senate, they’ll have a plethora of mailing lists to thank, in part. There are nearly 600 lists of Republicans, or lists used by Republicans to solicit donations and votes, compared with around 450 for Democrats, according data compiled by NextMark Inc.
The GOP rented the most expensive file listed when it sent solicitations to a 500-name offering from Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500. The Republican National Committee anted up a flat fee of $750, yielding a cost-per-thousand of $1500. The most expensive list with any sort of volume was the Fortune magazine mail file, which boasts 669,588 names at $300 per thousand and was used by both the National Republican Senate Committee and the Republican National Committee.
In contrast, Democratic spending seems almost austere. The highest-price list used by the Democrats was the “Affluent Advantage — Luxury Travel/High Net Worth Individuals mail file, which boasts 23 million prosperous consumers. (A number of more-expensive international lists featuring African companies were caught up in the search, as the search didn’t differentiate between the Democratic Party and the Democratic Republic of Congo.)
A peek at the lists each party used offers clues as to party tactics. There are lists of red-meat Republicans (“Flag Waving Republican Donors”; “Red State Republicans”); files geared toward broadening the party base (“Jewish Republicans”; “Spanish Speaking Republicans”); sentimentality (in the form of a “One for the Gipper” list, in honor of President Reagan); and appeals to affluence (“Silk Stocking Republican Donors”; “America’s Richest Republicans”).
If lists are any indication, the Democrats, too, are going for a mixture of diversity and affluence (“Jewish High Dollar Democrats”; Catholic High Dollar Democrats; $1000+ Democrats; Hispanic Defenders of the Democratic Party).
But when it comes to personality-driven lists, the GOP has it all over the Democrats. In addition to the Reagan and Thurmond lists mentioned above, President Bush is featured in four separate lists (“George W. Bush Donors”; “Defenders of President Bush”; “Hail to the Chief — Americans for Bush”; and “George Bush Calendar Buyers”.)
Do the Democrats have a similar shining star? Yes, in Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), but she seems to be working for the other team: The lists that feature her include “Citizens Against Hillary Clinton” ($125/M); “Hillary’s Archenemies” ($80/M) and “Donors to Defeat Hillary” ($130/M).
Similar searches for independents such as Ralph Nader and Ross Perot did not yield any results.
This political list data was assembled by Joseph Pych, president of Hanover, NH-based NextMark, Hanover, NH. Pych describes himself as a political independent who is interested in the political process — how elections are run and candidates get the word out.
Pych’s research bears out his own belief about the comparative sophistication of each of the major parties. “Republicans are better at direct marketing based on the techniques I have heard of the GOP using, and their adoption of direct marketing campaigns. One piece of evidence was in my research — there are more refined mailing lists on the Republican side.”
So after all the mailings are mailed, and all the e-mails are blasted, and all the calls are made, does Pych have a prediction for the end result, regardless of his personal preferences?
“Big wins for the Democrats,” he says, basing his guess on ear-to-the-ground information.
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